Sunshine on a Cloudy Day
by SmileyMiley
Summary: After Gabriella is killed in a car accident, Sharpay gets even more pushy than normal and Troy starts having suicidal thoughts. By accident, Kelsi ends up saying she's his girlfriend. No one fixes her mistake, and it starts feeling right. Trelsi.
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N: This was a spur-of-the-moment idea. I think Trelsi's kinda cute though, even though I love Troyella._**

**_Disclaimer: Don't own nothin'._**

Kelsi Nielsen sat at her front-row desk, next to Troy Bolton. Glancing at him, she found him openly staring at the back row, where Gabriella Montez was sitting. Kelsi laughed, watching some of her best friends openly show their love for each other and not even know it. Troy dimly heard her laugh and tore his eyes away from Gabriella.

"What's up, Kels?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Nothing. Just go back to staring at Gabi," she said, grinning. His head, which was already drifting back towards Gabriella, snapped back to Kelsi's smiling face.

"Kelsi! I was not staring at Gabriella. I'd know if I was." Kelsi rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, sure, Troy," she told him, knowing he didn't hear her. At that moment, the bell rang and Ms. Darbus walked in on the heels of Sharpay Evans, who gave Gabriella a scathing look. She slipped into her seat on the other side of Martha Cox, who sat on Troy's other side from Kelsi, and gave another scathing look to Kelsi. Kelsi rolled her eyes again, knowing that Sharpay was still crushing on Troy, even after the disastrous (in Sharpay's world) turn of the winter musical, in which Gabriella and Troy had beaten out Sharpay and her twin brother Ryan for the leads.

At lunch that day, Kelsi slipped into her usual seat between Gabriella and Taylor McKessie. Everyone was talking about the upcoming spring musical. Kelsi jumped right in.

"Ms. Darbus already has me working hard on writing songs for the show. Gabs, Troy, I'm hoping you guys win again, because these songs would sound better for you two than for Sharpay and Ryan." Gabriella smiled.

"Can we see any of the music yet?" she asked. Kelsi shook her head.

"Not yet, I'm not done. But I think you'll like it." Gabriella seemed satisfied with this answer, which was a welcome change for Kelsi. Sharpay would push and push until Kelsi showed her the music, and then change just about everything in it.

They kept talking, mostly about the musical and spring break, which was coming up at the end of the week. Kelsi had already decided to stay home and work on her songs over the break, but Troy seemed determined to shatter that idea.

"Come on, Kels, Gabi and Taylor and everyone are coming to Las Vegas with me. Come on, please?" Kelsi shook her head.

"I just don't feel like a trip this year. But don't let me stop anyone else from going. I know you all want to go. I don't. I'll see you when you get back." Troy finally gave up and the topic turned back to the musical.

On Friday, after school, everyone parted ways and the people who were going to Las Vegas (Troy, Gabriella, Taylor, Chad Danforth, Jason Cross, Zeke Baylor, and Martha) split up into Troy's and Gabriella's cars. They said goodbye to Kelsi and piled into the cars, the guys in Troy's and the girls in Gabriella's.

At twelve-thirty that night, the sounds of "Breaking Free" coming from her phone woke Kelsi up. Sighing, she rolled out of bed and grabbed the phone before it could wake her mom up.

"Hello?" she asked groggily. A distraught voice met her ears from the other end.

"Kelsi? It's Troy…there's been an accident." Kelsi's eyes bugged out and she was suddenly completely alert.

"What happened? Were you guys still in the car?"

"It wasn't my car, it was Gabi's. We were still driving, which was stupid of us, because none of us are very good night drivers. But everything was going fine. I was sitting in the passenger seat of my car talking to Taylor on the phone while Zeke drove, and Gabi was driving in her car. Suddenly the phone just went dead, and Jason screamed. The girls were in front of us, and we saw a semi swerve and crush their car between it and the guardrail. Thank goodness the guardrail didn't snap, because we were near the edge of a ravine.

"I dialed 9-1-1 and told them what happened. We all got out of the car and went to see what had happened. The driver of the semi had also gotten out. We could tell that he was drunk. But the car was still trapped, and I could see Taylor moving around. We couldn't see Gabi or Martha because they were in the front seat. When the paramedics got there, they got Taylor out first, and then they had to finagle Gabi and Martha out. There wasn't any room in the ambulance, so we followed them to the hospital. When we got there, we found out that Taylor had a broken arm and foot. They also had to amputate Martha's left arm." He stopped. Kelsi waited, tears streaming down her face at the thought of what had happened to her friends.

"What happened to Gabi?" she asked. She could hear him crying too.

"Gabi…they pronounced her DOA. Dead on arrival."


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N: This is one of my hardest and saddest stories ever. But I really like it...and there's just a little Trelsi friendship in this chapter, nothing more. It'll get more later._**

**_Disclaimer: SHARPAY EVANS: I told you to hire Troy Bolton--not the entire East High student body!_**

After hanging up with Troy, Kelsi sat on her bed and cried her eyes out. A little before one in the morning, Ms. Nielsen came into the room and found Kelsi lying backwards on the bed with a tear-streaked face. She sat down next to her daughter and put her hand on Kelsi's shoulder.

"What's wrong, baby girl?" Kelsi took a deep breath and burst out crying again. She told the story between sobs.

"Gabi, Taylor, and Martha were in a car crash. Taylor has a broken arm and foot, and Martha had to have her left arm amputated. But Gabi…" she stopped and hiccupped. Ms. Nielsen rubbed her back and waited.

"Mom, Gabi died! She was the youngest of anyone except me, she was only seventeen! How could God do this to her?" Kelsi sat up and buried her face in her mom's shoulder.

"I don't know, baby girl. But I'll tell you what: in the morning, when everyone's up, I'll put you on the first flight to Las Vegas. You can be with your friends for a little while, okay?" Kelsi nodded mutely. "Right now, you're going to get back in bed and I'm going to sit with you until you fall asleep, just like we did when you were little."  
Kelsi walked over to her closet and grabbed a teddy bear off a shelf. Ms. Nielsen smiled. "Oh, Bubbles." Kelsi nodded and climbed back into bed, cuddling the teddy bear. Ms. Nielsen tucked her in like a little girl and sat down in one of the chairs in the room. Closing her eyes, Kelsi fell into a troubled sleep.

Six hours later, she woke back up and found her mom still asleep in the chair. Gently shaking her awake, she said, "Can we get a plane ticket now?" Ms. Nielsen unfolded herself from the chair and nodded.

"We might get an afternoon flight, but I'll see if I can get you on standby for a morning flight. You pack your stuff while I'm on the computer."

Kelsi dragged a suitcase and her backpack out of her closet and started stuffing things into them. Walking over to her desk, she looked at the plastic surface full of pictures of her friends. Most of the pictures were of her, Gabriella, and Troy, sometimes with the others. Yanking some of the pictures of Gabriella out, she stuffed them into her very crowded photo album, which she stuffed into her backpack with everything else.

Half an hour later, Kelsi and Ms. Nielsen were piling into the car and driving to the airport. After checking her suitcase and saying goodbye to her mom, Kelsi went through security as fast as she could. She hurried to her standby gate. Pulling out her song notebook, she tried to come up with more lyrics for the spring musical, but she couldn't even think of one line. After about an hour of sitting and doing nothing, she heard, "Passenger Nielsen, please check in." She jumped up so fast that her notebook went flying.

Hurrying over to the check-in desk, she did all the things necessary to get on the plane. A half-hour later, people started boarding the plane. When she got on and found her seat, she pulled out her photo album and glanced through the pages. The pictures of Gabriella looked so alive and happy, especially the ones with Troy. Slamming the book shut, she struggled to hold back tears. Pulling out her cell phone, she called Troy before the plane started.

"Hello?"

"Hey Troy, it's Kelsi. I'm on a plane to Vegas right now. I'll be there in about an hour."

"Oh, thanks! Of everybody, you were closest to Gabi and I want you here."

"I want to be with you guys too. I have to get off the phone now, we're getting ready to push back."  
"Okay. Bye, Kels."

"See ya, Troy."

Kelsi turned off her phone, closed it, and put it back in her bag. Looking out the window, she wished again that God hadn't decided to end Gabriella's life so soon. She dimly listened to the safety talk and the other passengers talking. About ten minutes into the flight, still tired from the night before, she fell asleep.

About an hour later, the jolt of the plane landing woke her up. Getting her backpack off the floor, she looked out the window at the Las Vegas airport. When they opened the doors, she hung back for a while. As she stepped from her aisle, she mumbled, "Well, here goes nothing."

When she stepped past the security barrier, she was surprised to see Troy waiting for her. "Kelsi!" he cried. Kelsi ran towards him, opening her arms in the process. They hugged for a long while.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I needed something to do. I miss Gabi like crazy, and I think I'll go nuts if I don't stay busy. The other guys are still at the hospital with Taylor and Martha. Would you like to go?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah. I've got to get my suitcase first, but then we can go straight there." Troy nodded again, and they set off for the baggage carousals.

Ten minutes later, they were climbing into his car. Troy glanced at Kelsi as he climbed into the driver's seat.

"Do you remember the party after the musical ended?" he asked. "Chad and Taylor somehow decided to dump water on Gabriella and me, and Gabi went nuts. That's one of the few times I remember her getting angry at someone…" Kelsi nodded.

"Yeah, I remember. That's really the only time I remember her angry at someone. She doesn't get mad at Sharpay for some reason." Troy nodded. The whole way to the hospital, they kept talking about happier times they'd had with Gabriella.


	3. Chapter 3

**_A/N: I love this story, even though it's so sad. It's the first time I've written anything but Troyella, so yeah._**

**_Disclaimer: KELSI NIELSEN: Yes, ma'am. I mean Sharpay._**

Kelsi spent most of the rest of the week with her friends at the hospital. The few times she left, she was still with Troy or one of the other guys. One day, when she was alone in her hotel room (which was a rare occurrence in itself), she heard a strange sound coming from the next room. Pushing open the connecting doors, she found Troy sitting on his bed, crying.

"Troy?" she asked tentatively. He didn't answer. She sat down next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. Troy raised his tear-streaked face to her.

"Kelsi, I miss Gabi so much! Why did God take her away from us so soon? She didn't deserve it…she was going to turn eighteen in December. She was so alive and everything…I loved her! Why didn't God let her stay?"

Kelsi didn't know how to answer his questions, so she didn't say anything. Her eyes teared up as well as she sat there. Troy reached up and put his arm around her shoulders too.

"I know how close the two of you were. And I'm glad you didn't come with us, because you would have been in the car as well, and something may have happened to you." She raised her tear-filled eyes to him.

"You know what? I'd rather it have been me than Gabi. You love her. She didn't deserve to die." Troy's eyes opened wide, and he put both arms around Kelsi.

"Kelsi Grace Nielsen, you don't deserve to die either. No one does. I'm not happy that Gabriella died, but I'm glad you didn't. If you did, I wouldn't have someone who kind of understands what I'm going through. The others miss her, but you were her best friend." He stopped talking and tightened his arms around her. "I'm glad you're still here."

She wrapped her arms around him too and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're here too." They sat like that for a while, both of them trying to stop their tears.

When spring break was over, the guys drove home together while the girls flew back. Martha and Taylor were much too scared to get in a car on the Interstate, and Kelsi had already had a ticket home.

On Monday, when school started again, the first thing Kelsi noticed was Gabriella's empty desk in the back row. Troy sat in his usual seat between she and Martha in the front row, but his usually bright eyes were dull. Kelsi felt a wrenching pain in her heart and tore her eyes away from the empty desk.

When Ms. Darbus walked in, she gave pitying looks to Kelsi and Troy in the front row. But as if to completely undermine the looks, she started talking about the accident right away. Kelsi noticed Troy's eyes filling up with tears.

"Over spring break, there was a car accident on the interstate. In that car crash were our own students Taylor McKessie, Martha Cox, and Gabriella Montez. Taylor and Martha are still here with us today, but Gabriella passed away in the accident." At that moment, Troy jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room. Without giving Ms. Darbus a second glance, Kelsi sprinted after him.

He was ahead of her, but she was gaining. Finally paying attention in gym class was really paying off for her. "Troy!" she shouted. He didn't turn around, but he slowed down for a second, which gave her an edge to catch up.

"Troy!" she cried again, this time close enough to grab his arm. It caught him off-balance and he almost fell over.

"Kelsi, go away!" he shouted. Kelsi waited for a second, but he didn't run away again. She shook her head.

"I feel the same way as you. Ms. Darbus was being incredibly insensitive. Our wounds are still open and bleeding. We need time to heal before we can talk about it with someone else." Troy took in what she had said, then nodded.

"That's exactly how I feel. How did you know?" She cocked her head.

"I just told you: I feel the same way. Gabi was the closest friend I've ever had." He nodded and leaned back against the row of lockers on the wall.

"Troy, homeroom's almost over. I'll go back and get our stuff, then meet you in English. Okay?" Troy nodded, happy to not have to go back to Ms. Darbus's room just yet.

When Kelsi made her way to the English room with her backpack and Troy's in tow, she was annoyed but not surprised to find Sharpay sitting on Troy's desk, flirting with him. Putting her backpack down, she took Troy's and walked over to them.

"Hey, Sharpay," she said. "Can you give Troy and me a second alone? I need to tell him something." Sharpay glared at her but didn't disagree.

"Sure. Bye, Troysie!" she told him, fluttering her eyelashes as she stood up. As soon as she had walked far enough away, both Kelsi and Troy burst out laughing.

"Thank you so much, Kels," Troy whispered. "I was about ready to kill myself there. She doesn't get that I'm not even close to over Gabi." Kelsi nodded, not paying any attention to the suicide comment.

"I agree. I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier to get her away from you." Troy shrugged.

"It's all right. I should actually learn to do that on my own." Kelsi nodded and laughed.

"Yeah, you should. I'm not always going to be around to protect you from the hideous Sharpay-lion!" Troy burst out laughing again. At that moment the teacher came into the room, and Kelsi hot-footed it back to her own desk, praying the teacher wouldn't comment on the accident.

**_A/N2: I forgot to put this on the first chapter...this story is dedicated to the members of the Nice People Society._**


	4. Chapter 4

**_A/N: Hi everyone! No one commented on my last chapter...-tears up- but anyway, tell me what you think of the song verses in this chapter. I came up with them on my own, and I like. Oh yeah...and pretend Ryan's smart enough to pick up on Sharpay's schemes._**

**_Disclaimer: MS. DARBUS: I will not have my _Twinkle Towne _musicale turned into farce!_**

After school that day, the first thing Kelsi did was head for the music room. During free period, she'd come up with the first few verses for a new song. Sitting down at the piano, she opened her notebook and stood it up on the music stand. Readying her fingers over the keys, she started to sing slowly.

"_I wait by myself in the hallway_

_Thinking back on that awful day_

_When you called me up so late at night_

_And said I've just had a terrible fright_

_I was just at the hospital_

_They told me there's no hope at all_

_You told me with tear-filled eyes_

_We hang out now to help and cry."_

Kelsi took her hands away from the keys and sighed. It was a good song, she could feel it. But the music wouldn't come from her head to her hands like it usually would. As she took her notebook off the piano, a pair of hands came around her head and covered her eyes. She screamed softly.

"Guess who?" a voice asked. Kelsi rolled her eyes, immediately knowing who it was.

"Troy, quit it," she said, taking his hands away from her face. Troy pretended to pout.

"How did you know it was me?" he asked. She rolled her eyes again.

"You're the only person who does that. To me and Gabi, at least. Chad did it to Taylor once, and she nearly smacked him. So he doesn't to it anymore. And the only person Zeke would do it to would be Sharpay, and she _would_ slap him, so he doesn't do that. And Jason just doesn't do it to anyone." Troy shrugged, not disagreeing with her logic.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him. He glanced around the room, his eyes landing on her notebook. "Were you listening to me?" He nodded sheepishly.

"I didn't mean to! I was looking for you out in the hall, and I heard singing coming from here, so I stopped to listen. I didn't know it was you until I opened the door and saw you. That's when I came up and put my hands over your face," he told her. She nodded, believing him.

"Well, since you've heard it anyways, do you have any ideas for a chorus and any more verses?" she asked. He shook his head.

"No, I don't, and I think you should work on it by yourself. It's your song, and you should work on it on your own." Kelsi shook her head.

"It's kind of a song for both of us. I wrote it about Gabi, and helping each other through it." He stepped to the side of the piano bench and reached for the notebook.

"May I?" she nodded. He flipped through the book until he found a song labeled "Gabi's Song". Slowly reading through the verses he'd just heard her sing, he said the words to himself. Looking back at Kelsi, he came up with an idea.

"You can call the song 'Sunshine on a Cloudy Day'. The chorus can be about being each other's sun and bringing us out of the darkness. The story is about helping each other, and sunshine on a cloudy day is a metaphor for helping each other with problems." Smiling, he handed the notebook back to an amazed Kelsi.

"Wow, Troy!" she laughed, "I had no idea you were so deep!" He laughed too and nodded.

"There's a whole lot you don't know about me, Kelsi Nielsen." For the third time in the last ten minutes, Kelsi rolled her eyes at him.

"You clown. Now, we've got drama club, and we're going to be late if we don't hurry." At the mention of drama club, Troy's faced darkened once again. "Troy, I'm not sure if Darbus will be there today. We're getting very close to auditions, and she starts cracking the whip on us. But we can skip if you want to. We don't have to go, and it might help if we don't go face Darbus right away," she explained. Troy looked grateful.

"Just today. I'll go on Wednesday, but I just can't face Darbus today." Kelsi nodded, understanding his pain. "So, Kels, what are we going to do instead of drama today?" he asked. She shrugged.

"I have no idea," she deadpanned, not meaning it to be funny. Troy burst out laughing anyway. "Okay, that was not that funny. Apparently you're just looking for an excuse to laugh. We can go to my house and watch old little-kid movies and laugh so hard we cry." Troy nodded.

"That's something fun to do," he said, handing Kelsi her backpack and picking up his own. "Did you walk to school today? If you did, we can take my car." She nodded.

"Yeah, I did, so we can take your car." They set off towards the parking lot, laughing and joking still.

When they passed Ms. Darbus's room, they didn't settle down at all, hoping that the people inside would think that they were just random people leaving school. But at exactly the wrong moment, Sharpay looked out the window in the door. She opened her mouth to say something to Ms. Darbus, but then she took a closer look at the people outside the classroom. They were laughing and joking like…a _couple_?!?

The thought danced across Sharpay's mind. She clenched her fists and decided not to say anything now, but to blackmail Kelsi into dumping Troy. Her eyes hardened as she thought about what to do to that ungrateful little girl that she'd let into drama club.

Across the room from her, Ryan caught sight of his sister's fighting stance. Groaning, he glanced out the window. From where he sat, he could just barely see Troy and Kelsi walking and laughing. Immediately he understood what Sharpay wanted to do.

**_A/N: One more thing...Kelsi and Troy aren't dating. Not yet at least. Sharpay just thinks they are._**


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N: This is a long chapter for me...and really sad!_**

**_Disclaimer: KELSI NIELSEN: I smell two rats...neither of them named Darbus._**

The next day, Sharpay got to homeroom before Troy and Kelsi did, which didn't happen often. When the two of them walked in, they found Sharpay sitting in Martha's desk. Troy called her on it, crossing his fingers behind his back that she'd move.

"Hey, Sharpay, you do know you're sitting in Martha's desk, don't you?" he asked. Sharpay looked up at him and smiled.

"Not anymore. I asked Ms. Darbus if we could switch places, and she said we could. Isn't that great?" She smiled, but it didn't reach her ice-cold eyes. Troy groaned inwardly and sat down.

"Yeah, just great," he mumbled, glancing at Kelsi with a pained look in his eyes. She sat down too, feeling bad for Troy.

In the three classes the three of them had together, Sharpay went out of her way to sit near Troy and be nice to Kelsi. But, Kelsi noticed, in the two classes that she had with just Sharpay, the other girl just glared at her throughout the whole class period. At lunch, Kelsi and Troy hid out in the library, knowing it was the one place that Sharpay wouldn't look.

"She's following me around like a stalker, Kelsi! I can't take it anymore," Troy complained as soon as they sat down. Kelsi nodded.

"I don't know exactly how you feel, but mean Sharpay is much better than this sickly-sweet one. I'm kind of looking forward to gym, because it's the only class I have with you that I don't also have with her," she told him. He smiled for the first time that day.

"Who are you and what have you done with Kelsi Nielsen?" he joked. "But seriously, that's true. Unless she figured out a way to get transferred into our gym class…"

Kelsi shook her head. "I'm pretty sure you can't do that this late in the year. I'm not entirely sure she knows we have gym together though." Troy nodded.

"Hopefully not. I know you've got five classes with her, but I've got seven! The only one I don't have with her is gym, which you know," he said.

The two of them finished their lunches and went back to class, both dreading facing Sharpay again.

After school, Kelsi decided to wait by Troy's locker for him. She grabbed her own books and hurried down the hall. Before she even turned the corner, she heard the voice she'd been dreading.

"Oh, Troysie, you can't be serious! You don't have anyone to go to the dance with, and I don't either! You can just come with me!" Sharpay's voice ground in Kelsi's ears. Quickening her pace, she turned the corner and nearly ran the taller girl over.

"Sharpay, for the last time, I am not going to the school dance with anyone. Not you, not Kelsi, not anyone," Troy told her, grabbing his books. Slamming the locker door, he nearly ran down the hallway and Kelsi hurried after him. She nearly caught up close to the front doors.

"Troy! Wait up!" she called. He recognized her voice and slowed down considerably. "Troy, it's just Sharpay," Kelsi told him. "She can't really do anything to you." Troy looked down at the floor.

"I know. But she's so dang pushy! It's hardly been a week since the accident and she thinks I'm ready to go to the dance with _her_? Uh-uh, no way." He leaned against the wall and put his hand over his eyes. Kelsi put her hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to. I know she'll probably keep asking you, but if you tell yourself you're right, maybe it won't hurt so much." He took a second to absorb her words, then gave her a small smile.

"That sounds like a good idea. Thanks, Kelsi," he said. Putting his books down on a bench next to them, he hugged her. "You're one of the best friends I've ever had." She hugged him back and nodded.

"You too, Troy," she whispered. They broke apart and headed their separate ways, Kelsi walking towards her house and Troy walking towards his car.

That night, when Kelsi was messing around on the computer, the phone rang and she picked it up.

"Hello, Nielsen residence."

"Hi. This is Troy Bolton. Is Kelsi there?"

"Hi, Troy, it's me. What's wrong? You sound tense."

"I am. Sharpay just called me. At home! She asked me to the dance again."

"Ouch. What happened?"

"I tried what you told you, but it didn't really work."

"I'm sorry, Troy. I don't understand what you're going through, and my advice probably isn't the best to take."

"It's okay, Kels. But I was thinking…I think I ought to join Gabi."

"What do you mean?"

"She's the only girl I'll ever love. I think I'd better be with her."

"Do you mean you want to kill yourself?"

"Yes." _Click._

"Troy? Troy? Dang it…"

Kelsi slammed the phone down and ran downstairs. "Mom, I'm taking the car!" she cried. Grabbing the keys off the table next to the door, she ran out, slamming the door behind her.

"Okay, Kelsi…" her mom said. "What was that?" she asked herself.

In the car, Kelsi was nearly speeding towards Troy's house. She nearly missed it as she hurried down his street. Pulling into the driveway, she put the car in park and jumped out.

Ringing the doorbell, she hopped from foot to foot as she waited. Coach Bolton answered the door.

"Hi, Coach Bolton," she said. "I'm here to see Troy. He just called me, and I'm worried about something he might do." Coach Bolton looked Kelsi up and down, making her feel like a mouse.

"Please, Coach Bolton. If I'm right, I've got to hurry to make him stop." Coach Bolton looked at her warily, but he stepped aside and let her in.

She hurried up the stairs, trying to remember which room Troy had told her was his. When she got to the top, she didn't have to worry. One of the rooms had the letters T-R-O-Y glued onto it. Pushing it open without knocking, she stepped inside.

Troy was sitting on the bed. Looking closely at him, Kelsi noticed a pill bottle in his hand. Since he hadn't noticed her yet, she tiptoed up next to him and slowly reached out. Taking the bottle from his hand, she stuffed it in her pocket. Troy finally looked up and noticed her.

"Kelsi! What did you do that for?" he all but screamed. She sat down on the bed next to him.

"Saving you from yourself. If you killed yourself, who would I talk to and laugh with? Who would understand when I can't stop crying because I miss Gabi so much?" He waved his away from them in an 'I-don't-care' motion.

"The others miss her too," he said flatly. She shook her head.

"Not the way we do. You're the only person who cared about her as much as, if not more than, I do. Please, Troy. Listen to me." Troy looked into her eyes and then down at the bed.

"I just can't deal with the pain anymore. Everyone at school just makes it worse…it's like nothing happened to them. Why don't they care? Gabriella's dead, for Pete's sake!" Kelsi put her hand on his knee.

"Troy, I know. They do care…they just weren't nearly as close to her as we were. Just please…don't kill yourself. I feel so lost even now, but if you were gone, I'd feel so much worse." She put her arms around his shoulder and squeezed. "Please, Troy."

She felt his nod on her shoulder. "Okay, Kelsi. I'll stay for you." He took his arms away from the bed and squeezed her. "I'm sorry I scared you so bad, Kels. You don't deserve any of this, just like Gabi didn't deserve to die."


End file.
